“I Think I’m Gonna Throw Up” and other Praise Hymns

Most reasonable people will grant that “I Think I’m Gonna Throw Up” is unsuitable for any liturgical service; it’s essentially a novelty song, one which will make an occasional appearance at summer camps until the camp counsellors discover that having children run around pretending to throw up creates too many discipline problems. No, I’m more interested in this song’s unexpected recreation of an earlier Victorian genre of hymnody, of which there are two famous examples: “Stir up this stew, Stir up this stew, Stir up this stupid heart of mine.” and this, known as “the spinster’s hymn”: “O for a man, O for a man, O for a mansion in the sky!”